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| "Wait, what was I saying?" |
The ranking Republican member on Washington state’s House Transportation Committee thinks that riding bicycles causes more pollution than driving cars, the Seattle Bike Blog reported Saturday.
State Rep. Ed Orcutt (R) wrote an email to a constituent who disagreed with his support for a new tax on the sales of bicycles, a proposal being considered as part of a larger piece of transportation legislation. Reached by the Seattle Bike Blog, he confirmed the email is real.
In his message, sent to the owner of a bicycle shop, Orcutt wrote: “If I am not mistaken, a cyclists [sic] has an increased heart rate and respiration. That means that the act of riding a bike results in greater emissions of carbon dioxide from the rider. Since CO2 is deemed to be a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, bicyclists are actually polluting when they ride.”
He added that when citizens drive cars they are helping to pay for the roads, whereas bicyclists “need to start paying for the roads they ride on rather than make motorists pay.”
Reached for comment, Orcutt told Seattle Bike Blog that “you would be giving off more CO2 if you are riding a bike than driving in a car,” although he admitted to having no evidence to back the claim.
So essentially this scientifically ignorant Republican is upset that bicyclists get to ride on roads that they don't pay for. (Apparently road repairs are paid for through gas taxes, though that may soon change.) Though I would argue that the contribution to wear and tear on the roads, which creates the the need for much of road repair, is substantially less from bicycle tires than from heavy automobiles.
However back to Orcutt's point about the fact that bicyclists create more CO2 pollution than do automobile drivers. Essentially that's bullshit!
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that each passenger vehicle in the U.S. generates on average 4.8 metric tons of CO2 every year, not accounting for emissions resulting in damage to the vehicle and local infrastructure, along with the actual production of fuel. The European Cyclists Federation, however, puts CO2 emissions from biking at about 10 times less than driving a car (PDF), even after accounting for the emissions required to make the bike and emissions linked to food the rider eats to power the device.
You know you would think that after so MANY ridiculous attempts to use science to support their argument, that the Republicans would simply stop using it.
The earth is six thousand years old, women getting raped can "shut that whole reproductive thing down." Mitt Romeny is going to win by a landslide, all completely, and embarrassingly, wrong.
No wonder the Republicans are constantly attacking education. If they can't figure out reality, then dammit they will keep others too dumb to figure it out too!
Update: Apparently Orcutt received so much backlash due his ridiculous statements that he has decided to walk them back:
"My point was that by not driving a car, a cyclist was not necessarily having a zero-carbon footprint," Orcutt wrote in an email delivered to constituents. "In looking back, it was not a point worthy of even mentioning so, again, I apologize."
Well it's nice that he realizes what he said was ignorant, and I have one response to his apology and desperate attempt to put this behind him.
"Too late!"
How do these weird people manage to get elected? They must not speak openly about these ideas until they are safely in office. If this is how his constituents fell, then the country is truly screwed. Add in the other gop candidates with their religious fervor and we do not have a chance of getting the ship of state back on course.
ReplyDeleteThese people are so fucking stupid! Property taxes also pay for roads! And yea, a bike is alot less damaging that a Bus or gas guzzling SUV! A bike is nothing! Basically little more than someone walking down the street.
DeleteAll people being elected should have to pass a Drug test and the Same test people have to pass to get citizenship!
Lets get rid of the stupid, for once and for all!
And lets face it, at the fatness riding in BIG ass trucks vs the skinny bicyclist's?
If these fuckers rode bkies they my be more healthy and clear their gas fumed brains with air.
Maybe they wouldn't make such asshole statements?
Look at places like China and the Nordic countries. Up until recently, China had more bicycle riders than cars. Many, many people in the northern European countries ride bicycles instead of driving.
DeletePart of the problem is that we no longer have independent local news papers. Today we have conglomerates who hire "correspondents" to do local reporting. Many local candidates simply don't answer questions. So whoever has the largest family/most friends or is a member of the local majority party gets elected.
DeleteA fat man walking up three flights of stairs also emits more Co2. What now, brainiac?
ReplyDeleteI think that he has this wrong. A bicyclist riding along a flat road is not even bretahing heavy, unless he is trying to ride fast. A jogger, or an overweight walker..now THOSE people are using up oxygen! AND they are daring to walk or run on public paid sidewalks or the roads! Book 'em, Danno! Good Lord, is there anyone else the GOP wants to demonize? Girl Scouts? You know, because they walk around selling cookies. How about dogs? Because they emit, well, you know, all over the place. And lawnmowers should be taxed. And what about rakes? When I rake leaves, I get winded and breathe heavily. My goodness, the anti-tax GOP has a wealth of options here for raising revenue! And I bet not one of them involves a millionaire.
ReplyDelete3:24
DeleteMillionaires have people to do all that emitting for them.
Yea what about all the GAS that "Gasbag" limpballz emits!?
DeleteTax the rich! Tax the rich. New mantra.
Great mantra, 6:16, but I would alter only a little:
DeleteTax the rich AT THE SAME LEVEL WE ARE!
If they really want to rewrite the tax code, they can gloriously simplify it: get rid of ALL separate definitions of "income" and tax EVERYONE at the same rate, based on the graduated income tax rate as we are currently.
Exactly, Leland. Seems pretty simple to me.
DeleteAhh, that's the problem, isn't it?
Using that logic, all sports or activities that produce co2 need to be banned.
ReplyDeleteBeing alive apparently needs to be banned.
What an asshole.
Since the Chick-fil-A crowd fart and shit more.....tax the food at a higher rate.
ReplyDeleteOf course bicycles with riders crude more air pollution.
ReplyDeleteIt's all of the kids, boys mainly, riding around in the neighborhoods, making motorcycle motor sounds--- Like Harley-Davidson's distinctive engine noise by sticking out their tongue out and blowing, you know, the raspberry thing. Or Like the Kawasaki Ninjas which is a scream that I can't describe but you know it when you hear it -- anyway, lots of CO and CO2 emitted---tons of the stuff per kids, especially on hot summer days. Not to mention the noise pollution. Plus, the little boys---mainly the little librul heathens--- fart all the time. Little girls don't. God made them different. The boys though... Peee Yewww! EmittIng all of that methane on one another all the time--causes climate change and is the reason the polar caps melt.
I agree with the Republicans here. We need to do all we can to keep kids from riding bikes anyway because they're a health hazard by providing exercise. And since Moochelle OBlamer wants kids to exercise, it's bad. Really bad.
We need to protect our kids by getting them more video games and.game consoles so they can stay in their rooms all the time playing Grsnd Theft Auto or whatnot when they're not looking at porn online and chatting with 60-yr old white male republican (is there any other kind?) perverts sitting in their congressional offices, cruising gamer sights for kids to exploit. Of course, since the kids will be on there all alone unsupervised--- they'll need some kind of protection. No, not condoms. Those are for sluts and bad boys who fornicate together do they can go have a bunch of abortions, just for fun. No. What the kids need is a couple of guns and lots of ammo. A semi- auto assault rifle with a 100-bullet barrel magazine with a couple of spare magazines ready to reload. And maybe a 9 mm pistol or two to fondle (loaded of course!) while they wait their turn to shoot someone in the video game. THAT's the kind of protection that we Republicsns want for OUR kids.
See, The GOP way is good for the environment AND for protecting our children, especially their 2nd amendment rights to bear arms and not exercise if they don't want to. It's all about Liberty. Freedom. That's why the GOP is the Family Values Party, and the DimmieCrap party is just a bunch of atheistic, lesbian-lovin', Jeebus-hatin', puppy and kitten kickin' commie fascists. But we will still pray for these lost dimmies, that they can be like us if they pray away the gay and stop taking religion out of schools. See, that's the problem. That, and ummm, the blah people. Them blahs will never learn how to act unless they turn Republican.
Sarah could fix all of this on her first day. Mitt Romney is a RINO so he couldn't do squat. Nor Marco Roooobio.
Sarah Palin/Allen West 2016 - servant leadership in an unselfish way to benefit All GOOD Americans!
s/
Oh, you're so sick! I like that.
Delete"no evidence to back the claim."
ReplyDeleteIsn't that the norm for republicans these days? They don't need no stinkin' evidence. That should be their motto.
All facts are created by democrates to make the Repugs look bad. :-)
DeleteHow about all those having sex I bet they are emmitting Co2. Let's tax that, and how about all those babies they want born. They bawl and bawl how much are they emitting? dumb asses- stupid is as stupid does. They have no actual thinking process. Anything to tax someone other than the rich. But they will not tax any yacht's or furs
ReplyDeleteThat's on a par with Ronald Reagan's notion that trees cause pollution or his idea that, for school meals, ketchup should be considered to be a vegetable. Republicans have been stupid for a long time.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
Wait, I'm having difficulty wrapping my head around this one... So, the representative from the party of "no new taxes" and "global warming is a hoax being perpetrated by Al Gore" is pushing for a new tax on bicycles because their riders emit greenhouse gasses when they exhale?
ReplyDeleteI think I just got whiplash.
Get t the back of the line, Boscoe. I was waiting to sue for it first!
DeleteSimple science experiment:
ReplyDeleteLock Orcutt in a garage for an hour with a running car, and then for an hour in a garage with a sweaty person riding a stationary bike. Log the data.
That running car engine would be emitting CO.
DeleteThat's carbon monoxide, not CO2, carbon dioxide.
Science is for everyone.
I think that was the previous poster's point. One less RWNJ.
DeleteWorks for me!
DeleteWhenever Sarah Palin sucks up all the oxygen in a room can we charge her a fee for pollution every time she exhales?
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Lets bill her retroactively!
DeleteGiven that line of thinking, athletes participating in active sports also exhale huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Anyone who exercises daily, or runs a marathon....it's an absolute crock!
ReplyDeletePlants help keep a balance of nature because they absorb carbon dioxide to use in making food (photosynthesis). In the process, they give off oxygen. (Sorry, if your school is still teaching science based on the Bible, this might sound like radical thinking to you.) The solution to all of that carbon dioxide being exhaled by people is to plant more plants and restore the rain forest, the lungs of the planet.
I like Michele Bachmann's science, that carbon dioxide is not bad for you because it is natural. The moral of this story is that science has to be taught in the schools, along with other subjects that teach kids how to think and reason, otherwise they will end up thinking that a bicycle is more polluting than cars.
...And then you've got Rush Limbaugh's "science" that carbon emissions don't matter because he's confident that God will clean it up for us.
Deletehttp://mediamatters.org/research/2011/12/19/rush-limbaugh-climate-change-misinformer-of-the/185495
Which is, naturally, EXACTLY what they DON'T want!
DeleteHe's about due to be appointed to the Science Committee, isn't he?
ReplyDeleteBy any chance was this guy home schooled?
ReplyDeleteLOL! Probably!
DeleteI am most embarrassed that he is from my state where most of the people are smarter than this idiot. What a sad state of affairs :( As pointed out above, he is also looking at TAXING more people. Of course, people who ride bikes are not in the 1%, are they? Therefore, it is okay to raise taxes on the other 99%. Too bad so many of the GOP don't think before speaking as they truly create a stupid image of their political party.
ReplyDeleteI am embarrassed too, 1smartcanerican. I can't believe the idiocy.
DeleteConsidering the last voting results here, I could say "What's that guy smoking?" but he's probably really that loopy naturally. : )
We should all feel bad, he's technically one of our own species. (I used the term "technically" just in case he's proven to be the missing link)
DeleteI think that Rep. Orcutt should hold his breath for the next hour.
ReplyDeleteYou know...for the good of the planet and all.
I think I even have a cork that MAY be big enough!
DeleteI reckon next he'll be telling everybody that exercise kills more people than guns. Baggers... Never mind. They're not worth talkin' about tonight.
ReplyDeleteThose who can, teach, those who can't become republicans
ReplyDelete